As usual…

…too busy actually playing to post about it. I keep meaning to update my best Cataclysm dailies for gold post with the new Hyjal dailies, but every time I go do the dailies I forget to note down the gold rewards. It doesn’t help that I’ve been sick and, as a result, very fuzzy-brained. Blargh.

On the upside…

I’m done with the challenge tames! (Until my little hunter hits 85 – she’s 81 right now – and then I get to chase down Anthriss, Ankha, Karkin and Kirix. Yay?)

Of course, I still haven’t managed to name most of them. The only two that got named so far are Skarr (Maladath, after this item, because I’ve always liked the sound of the name and it seemed to fit) and Ban’thalos (Spirit – the same name as my Loque’nahak, who got abandoned to free up a slot for him; I have Loque on my little hunter as well and I try not to duplicate pets). I haven’t been this indecisive over a pet’s name, let alone four pets’ names, in a very long while.

Story of each individual tame in the extended entry, for those who care. Some of them involve ganking. (PVP servers are such fun, right?)

The first tame was Solix. Technically he wasn’t even my tame, because on the day he was tamed I was still visiting my family and on a computer that could not run WoW. So the boyfriend was doing my dailies for me, and sure enough, he found Solix up, so when I came home I found a gorgeous orange lava spider waiting for me. (He also found Anthriss, but a horde player very thoughtfully killed first him, then Anthriss.)

Next came Skarr. I wasn’t sure I’d want him, since I’ve never clicked with a hunched glowy cat before (and I’ve literally tried them all), so I left him out of NPCScan and figured I’d leave it to fate whether I stumbled on him or not. I had just finished checking Skitterflame’s spawn and was going back to Kirix’s – checking the spawns manually, not with Eagle Eye, since there was a high concentration of hunters around – and as I was jumping over the rocks, I saw a red nameplate labeled “Skarr”. Gotta be the pet of a horde hunter who’s screwing around with everybody else, can’t possibly have just spawned… but no, it was the actual Skarr.

Two more hunters arrived and started jumping around on the rocks, then tried to tame him. I thought I’d let them have a go at him first, because after all, I wasn’t sure I’d want him… but no, they got eaten by Fieroclast Barrage. Which almost killed me, too. Devious, evil, mean cat…

I bandaged (no food in bags, argh) and switched spec from BM to Marksmanship, being very thankful that I’d respecced to a normal Marks spec that included Silencing Shot a few days earlier (from the oddball “let’s see if we can two-man Brutallus” Marks spec). Got the cat’s attention from the ledge (not from the rocks… god knows why the other hunters were trying from the rocks when he was reachable without jumping around), interrupted Fieroclast Barrage and the tame went off without a hitch, just as the other hunters resurrected. I still feel a bit guilty, but I’ve since seen both other hunters around with their own Skarr and the cat instantly clicked, so it’s all good.

Almost immediately after that came Skitterflame. I’d moved out of the Molten Front and to the Shrine of Aviana to drop a pet in the stables (and pull out one to abandon, since after taming Skarr my stables were completely full). I flew back down to the Molten Front and figured hey, I’ve just been to Kirix and Skitterflame’s spots, they’re not up, let’s go check Anthriss and Deth’tilac… made it halfway up the ramp to Forlorn Spire and some druid, god bless him, called in /1 that Skitterflame’s up. I whimper something along the lines of “noooo somebody’s going to get him before I can even get there” and start riding back. Got nearly killed by the flame wall, of course… and I was also so panicked that I managed to fail at rock jumping like a complete idiot.

Fortunately, I was close enough to Skitterflame’s side that I released at the graveyard on it. Ran back, picked up my corpse, got to Skitterflame… only hunter there. Okay, okay, calm down, calm down, I’ve read plenty about this, I can do it easily.

First try, I trapped Skitterflame twice then backed into an elemental, who promptly walked into my third trap. Skitterflame munched my face off.

Second try, I trapped Skitterflame twice, then backed into a fire hawk. Learned my lesson, feigned.

At this point the boyfriend asked “er, why are you not clearing things?” I facepalmed and cleared a few mobs around.

Third try, I trapped Skitterflame twice, then got all excited and forgot about the third trap. Pressed tame, he charged me and I got my face munched off again.

Fourth try, same thing.

By this point another hunter showed up – a horde one, at that – and I was in full-blown panic mode. Fifth try… almost same thing, but I managed to feign in time.

Fifth try, I trapped Skitterflame twice then started kiting him, waiting for my trap to get off cooldown so I could trap him a third time… and I walked right into the other hunter’s trap. (I’m guessing he was trying to help me, since he had Karkin out.) The other hunter delayed Skitterflame enough for the trap to wear off, and I dropped my last trap and the tame, finally, went off without a hitch.

And yet despite all that, he didn’t click for the longest time. He only really clicked a few days later – when I had him in my actives as I was camping for Deth’tilac, fully intending to use him as a sacrifice then abandon him. And then I started feeling immensely guilty, kinda like I had a spider clinging to my legs and going “nooooo don’t abandon me”. Figures.

Then came Ban’thalos. I’d taken the habit of logging out in the tree after doing my dailies, but had no luck beyond occasionally seeing bunches of skeletons in the tree. The boyfriend had seen him twice while I was gone visiting my family, but he always got tamed really fast. Then one fine morning, I logged in and there he was… except two other hunters were already trying to tame him. Okay, okay, fine, I’ll let them have a go, they were there first.

The first hunter dropped from too far up and got one-shot by the first Harsh Moonlight. The second hunter dropped down better, but neglected to trap and got summarily three-shot. My turn then!

Flew up, shot Ban’thalos, dropped down on the tree, dropped a trap, started taming… and the two other hunters, who had in the meantime run back, simultaneously shot and broke my trap. Cue me dying. Grrrrr.

So I ran back. Got on the tree again. Watched them fail again. Dropped a trap, flew up, tagged Ban’thalos, dropped down, started taming… and the other hunters broke my trap again. Cue a second death.

Right then. I usually make it a point not to grief others, if another hunter is already taming a beast I also want ehh well, it’ll respawn… but that only goes as long as I don’t get griefed myself. Because seriously, I’m not going to let people tame unimpeded if they can’t extend me the same courtesy.

I ran back again. Got there just in time to watch the first hunter drop down from a decent height, trap Ban’thalos, start taming… and get his trap broken by the second hunter. First hunter died, and the second hunter trapped Ban’thalos and started taming.

I’m guessing he thought I still wouldn’t interfere.

Yeah, like hell. I shot his trap, watched him get killed, trapped Ban’thalos and tamed him for myself. The first hunter managed to run back in time to break my trap again, but by that point my tame had one second left and it didn’t matter anymore.

A few days later, I was exploring around with Eagle Eye and saw Deth’tilac was up. Another hunter was already trying to tame, so I went to help (despite the fact that he was horde, so I could’ve killed him and taken Deth for myself – like I said, I don’t grief others). He tamed his Deth, and I got a spawn timer.

I woke up bright and early the next morning and sat and camped. Not a soul around. Then around noon, Deth spawned. Yay! I got out the disposable yellow spider I’d grabbed earlier and started the tame process. Got Deth to 90%, then 80%… then a horde shaman showed up and watched for a bit. And then he clearly decided that I must not be allowed to have Deth, because he killed me.

I ran back to see the shaman and several other people happily killing Deth. A horde hunter was even standing there, doing /beg emotes and clearly trying to get them to stop so he could tame Deth – but they didn’t stop. I killed some of them a few times, but there were too many of them, so Deth died.

I sulked for a bit and decided I’d be back for the next spawn – surely I wouldn’t get griefed forever. Then I went to do my dailies…

…and I spotted something on Track Beasts in the Regrowth that wasn’t the usual red dot of the ghostly stags. So in true pro hunter fashion, I promptly fell off my drake, ditched the disposable spider and started hurriedly taking off my gear.

“Err” went the boyfriend “why’d you abandon the spider?”
“Blind much? Magria, right here.”

I didn’t have her on NPCScan, because she was another one I wasn’t sure I wanted (I’ve tamed Gondria before, as well as normal saber cats, and never clicked with any of them). For the same reason, I didn’t have a naked set on my Outfitter.

While I was stripping, Magria had run off. I hurriedly chased after her, worried I’d lose her, too – especially since without my gear I was a perfect target for any enterprising horde player looking to gank himself some alliance – but nobody was around, and the tame went off without a hitch. It felt like the universe was consoling me for having Deth killed on me.

Still, I wanted Deth. I had no space left, but I figured that since Skitterflame wasn’t clicking, I’d just abandon him once I found Deth again.

I went back to the Forlorn Spire in the evening, around 11:30pm. Another hunter was there, so I wished him luck and left. When I next passed by, 45 minutes later, he no longer was there and there were a few skeletons on the floor that hadn’t been there before. Deth had spawned, then. Good.

Got up the next morning bright and early, trekked up to the Forlorn Spire. Sat there for a few hours, then a horde hunter arrived and promptly killed me. I ran back, got killed again, ran back, got killed again, ran back and managed to kill him instead.

While I was waiting for him to resurrect, another alliance hunter arrived, trailing a Deth and setting off my NPCScan. Ahh well, not like a gigantic purple spider is hard to see, right? I started chatting with him and he helped me kill the horde hunter until he gave up and left.

Then horde hunter #2 showed up. He didn’t seem unfriendly and he made no move to attack either of us. Little did I know – as soon as the alliance hunter left, he promptly killed me. And unlike the first horde hunter, he was wearing PVP gear, which meant I couldn’t manage to kill him.

By this point I was really panicking. I figured the hunter would just keep killing me until Deth spawned, at which point we’d have a full-out war over Deth (because by that point, there was no way I was letting him have the spider without a fight). But then, after a bit, he got bored and wandered off.

Then a third horde hunter showed up. And killed me. Over and over. Arrrrrrrrrrrgh.

And then he must’ve also gotten bored, because he wandered off. I ressed and, as a precaution, brought my druid main over to the Forlorn Spire as well. Since I run two accounts, I figured that when Deth spawned, the boyfriend could help me out by chain-rooting using my druid, so I wouldn’t have to kite out from behind the Spire and risk getting the attention of more horde.

Unfortunately, by that point, I’d also realized that Skitterflame was clicking with me, and I did not, after all, want to abandon him. Which left me with 5 pets in my actives, none of which I wanted to abandon. Bugger.

So I did the only sensible thing to do and rode away from the Spire and out of the Molten Front, flew to the Shrine of Aviana, and started rummaging around in my stables, trying to figure out which pet I was least attached to so I would have a free spot for Deth. Not that one, not that one, not that one, hmm, maybe this o–OHBUGGERDETHISUP.

Shrieked for my boyfriend to get to the computer, dragged the “hmm, maybe this one” pet to my actives, mounted up and rode like hell towards the Spire. Summoned and ditched the pet, tamed a handy disposable spider and started the tame process.

Thanks to the druid roots, the tame went really quickly and smoothly – took about a minute and a half or so to get Deth down to tamable health. It helped that I didn’t need to kite at all.

And literally 10 seconds after the tame went off, horde hunter #2 showed back up. And killed me, of course, but I had my spider so I couldn’t bring myself to care, especially since he could’ve easily showed up 10 seconds earlier and taken Deth from me.

And fortunately, “hmm, maybe this one” turned out to be a pet I’m not missing at all. Would’ve been fairly unfortunate otherwise.